Yesterday’s post (https://murreyandblue.org/2024/09/10/henry-vis-luck-of-muncaster/) was about the adult Henry VI, but today I’m concerned with the infant Henry. It begins with the anchoress Emma Roughton at All Saints-North Street, York. In this link https://www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/ancient-sites/early-christianity/the-parish-church-of-all-saints-north-street-york/ Emma’s cell is described thus  “….The anchorhold [cell] at All Saints North Street had two stories and was in the churchyard adjoining…

Muncaster is a castle in the Lake District, owned by the Pennington family since 1208. The area was heavily occupied before that and parts of the castle may even lie over a Roman fort–hence the ‘caster’ in Muncaster. One of the castle’s treasures is the ‘Luck of Muncaster, ‘ a bowl given to the family…

The above ring is part of an exhibition of 121 historic rings that is to be open from 7-11 October 2024 at S.J. Phillips’ Mayfair showroom. I confess to longing to know to whom this ring originally belonged. Someone recognisable to us today? One of Richard II’s supporters, obviously, but was it lost or wisely…

Today’s (disused) prison at Gloucester was built on the site of a Norman castle. Well, two Norman castles, the first being the usual early wooden motte and bailey, which was replaced on almost the same site by a more substantial stone fortress that guarded the important crossing of the River Severn. Gloucester was the first…

If you’ve ever been the victim of the notorious stinging nettle, urtica dioica (see the image above,) you’ll know it darned well does sting! It also itches and continues to do so for quite some time. As a child the remedy I knew was the well-known folk cure of rubbing the sap of dock leaves…

“….It all started with a chance encounter. A young woman, resplendent in an Elizabethan gown embroidered with stars, her lovely face framed by an exquisite lace ruff, stared out of a cabinet miniature at art historians Elizabeth Goldring and Emma Rutherford. They had come upon the portrait in a private collection and it quickly transpired…

A fond memory from my childhood is an early-1950s holiday spent with my maternal great-aunt in the Dorset village of East Chaldon (aka Chaldon Herring). She and my great-uncle lived in one of a short terrace of thatched cottages and I had a bedroom (third or fourth from the camera in the Google Maps photograph…

Reblogged from A Medieval Potpourri @ sparkypus.com A medieval scribe busy scribing.  Royal MS 18 E. III, fol. 24r The British Library, London THE SETTING Following the sudden death of King Edward IV (1442-1483) at his palace of Westminster on the 9th April 1483 an unseemly scramble ensued to get his son,  now King Edward V,  from where…

The sweating sickness has featured in this blog before* but now I have come upon another article about it which is worth bringing to attention. If you go here (https://allthatsinteresting.com/sweating-sickness) you’ll discover a lot about the disease that ripped through England in the late 15th century. The article places the sickness’s arrival to shortly after…

I was casting around for something to watch recently and happened on a TV series called MY LADY JANE. It’s a fantasy and comedy version of the story of Lady Jane Grey…a version without the tragic real-life ending. In this version, there are shapeshifters called Ethians in the kingdom who turn into animals for half…